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Kaamco August meeting report

Kaamco August meeting report
Photo by Jeff Yapalater

The Kaamco August meeting was a lttle less attended due to people on summer vacation but this did not lessen the import ant information shared by the various members of the airline and airport community.

President Judy Blainey asked the members for feedback in advance for possible questions that members have but may not be able to share at the meeting . She asked to e-mail her or the Board for responses. Phil Maret remarked that some Kaamco members had a meeting with JFK Airport management Charles Everett, John Selden and Ralph Tamburro on a number of issues including taxi swap, metering and challenges on airspace in the NY area. It was commented that JFK Airport weather is challenging but with better metering and enforcement there may be some improvement in handling operational issues. Maret said Tamburro would do an educational informational seminar on these topics after Labor Day. On another topic Maret said many international airlines don’t have the setup with their own flight dispatch office here so a better knowledge base would be helpful. About 15 airlines and T4 and T1 terminal operators attended.

Airport Voice presented Kaamco and the Port Authority were presented National Aviation Day certificates of commendation for their contributions to the airport community and legacy of the Wright Brothers’ flight.

Police, security, TSA

PAPD Inspector Rowland gave a quick rundown on the “JetBlue Hijack that wasn’t”. Rowland said that the aircraft lost communication, was stranded on the tarmac for 20 minutes while comm was out. At some point the Hijack code was entered starting a string of emergency responses from FAA then police. The police responded and after unsuccessfully communicating finally got in touch with the pilot who said all was good. But, the police sent ESU to the plane, entered it and found that all was indeed good. According to Rowland, they had to do this because the pilot may have been under duress. Rowland added that because of this situation, additional conversations and procedures were held to revisit current protocols including providing a Hijack locations at for oversized A380 airbus.

Captain Bellucci happily reported that passenger levels are up and larceny down 26 percent year to date. Hustler arrests are way up but Police have created a worst offender list and working with the District Attorney’s Office to get maximum sentencing on these frequent offenders. Chief Frank said she was happy crime is down and congratulated the department for making significant baggage theft arrests. Lt. Lomonaco says that companies requiring license plates need to get vehicles inspected and not to wait.

Rowland said July was busy with breaches and access control offenses. Upon review they found that 80% were created by homeless people. He acknowledged that here is a homeless problem and they will not arrest people but rather get the Volunteers of America involved. If airport companies have any issue he asked they contact the police department.

Inspector Rowland remarked that the Port Authority Police are all prepped for the UNGA event which beginning in Mid-September. He said that they will meet with the UN delegations in NYC at the end of August and share all the details that the visiting diplomats and staff need to know such as plane staging areas and wait time, car convey rules, security protocols and appropriate immigration requirements so that all is efficient and smooth.

Security

Ajay Patel of the Kaamco Security Committee reported that TSA John Fusco held an unclassified session at the security committee meeting. Patel felt this was worth sharing with the general membership and asked Fusco to come to Kaamco for an update on things that Kaamco is looking at. Patel informed the group that TSA is conducting its annual comprehensive inspection beginning August 13th lasting for a few weeks. Inspections are random and they the are looking to find weaknesses so Ajay advised all concerned to be diligent. On another matter, he reported that PAPD has class of 20 officers that graduated and hopefully will help with hustlers problem at the airport which represents possible crime. On the FBI side Patel said there are a number of female assaults on airplanes and encouraged to have witnesses to be on hand once the FBI arrives to make a report.

Patel stated UNGA should have phone numbers and contacts for the community shortly. Inspector Rowland followed up by saying that preps have been made and a final meeting with the UN on August 30 will have details ready to share.

Kim Dickie of JFK Security mentioned the lack of challenges by fellow employees to an individual that may not be conspicuously wearing their badge or an unknown person. She reminded badge holders of their responsibiity to do so. Bill Husiman of the ADC followed up on this with his report and repeated what Dickie said while also providing information on the Community Watch, Crime Watch and Challenge programs to help aid in what Kim said. He mentioned “Piggybacking” , which is unauthorized entry of more than one person at a time through keypad entry, as a topic of concern to be addressed by JFK Security in the coming weeks.

PORT security asks that companies call in the termination of an individual with a badge within 15 minutes then send in paperwork.

October will be the kick off of InfoCop which is a vetting program for escorted truckers entering the secured areas without a badge, needs to provide adrivers license This program was already launched at LGA and Newark and soon to be in JFK.

TSA

John Bambury JFK FISD, reported its was a busy and successful summer with 4 million passengers screened and 3 million bags inspected. On its peak day over 109, 000 passengers passed through. He mentioned a few items: there are currently 18 TSA canines in airprt throughout the rest of the summer; weather related IROPS are a challenge but manageable; and CT technology tomography is the wave of future. There is currently one CT machine at T8 and another due at T1 shortly.

TSA will conduct its annual comprehensive inspection beginning August 13 and lasting for a few weeks for random testing of compliance in all areas. Jim Fitzgerald amplified that by saying that this is truly a comprehensive security inspection on compliance by airlines, cargo. terminal operators, in action and written compliance.

Cargo, Interline

Brian Cooley reported that the NYCEDC is talking about an RFP for trucking staging area across from the USPS which is early stages but good for the community. (This is very important to the JFK Gateway). Cooley floated idea of a Kaamco trucking committee. Peter Debenigno told of city award of $100 million dollars to modernize freight distribution here at JFK. Getting trucks in and out faster. But part of rail and water freight movements are usually included in thee freight plans.

The Cargo committee has already begun conversations with the US Post Office getting the mail annex started early this year. One issue is that Port has rented out Bldg 77, so cargo will have to work around this so it so it won’t interfere with cargo movements. In response to Judy’s question about the pallet empties, Cooley said that dnata, WFS and AGI have contributed and cleaned up the area.

Cooley announced that Kaitlin Burden of Summit has been selected as team lead on cargo side.

Interline reported all good. July volume was a record as this was echoed in remarks by TSA.

New faces

Stacey Lora of T4 introduced Roel Huinink as CEO of JFKIAT who has a 20 year background at Skiphol Airport wha said he was proud and honored to be here. JFK and Port focused on customer experience and good to see. Passengers and airlines. Huinink is looking forward to big potential expansion at the airport, He believes safetty is the key focus on construction and and personal safety believing working together with community will keep everyone happy and safe.

Mark Leininger from NYALO introduced Mike Wesche as the NYALO taking over from Debbie Reardon and will be located in buiding 141.

EOC-AOC

EOC will physically grow with current build out in Building 111 to be completed in early 2019. The new AOC is currently in Bldg. 145 and will co-habitate with the EOC at Building #111. A large Number of agencies will be housed in both EOC&AOC. There will be an airport wide community meeting held by Port and IATA following up on the weather issues and recommendations and implementations by JFK. Vale funding is available for ground handling equipment converting from diesel to electric. Manager Bulletin info is available in another article in this paper.

FAA

FAA mentioned they had a busy few weeks with a bird strike, United Airlines smoke condition and biggest thunderstorms pounded JFK airport which put pressure on all workers to manage passengers and help flights get out before the hours rule were implemented.

Comments: In contact with Port working on GM bulletins and happy to say improving with direct line to Tower will help. Dave Siewert said that the Bay runway is 3 miles long but due to construction this space will be lost for queuing departures. They will have to wait.

He is speaking with Port at ways to reduce gate waits and try to park aircraft out of the way.

He promised to do the best he can to mitigate these delays, congestion and weather related delays.

When asked by a member if FAA is technologically up to speed on operations Siewert said yes and are keeping up with the rest of the country.

When asked about weather delays Siewert said that he hoped this is seasonal and not due to long term climate change.

Customer experience initiatives

Several consumer experience satisfaction oriented improvements were discussed by Teresa Rizzuto, Airport Operations. Some include using new technologies such as digital tracking of security wait times, passenger movements, hygiene reporting, taxi wait times and vertical equippemt functionality at terminals. Port reports that airport wide wifi is now in place and improving all the time.

Port reported tht some of the final pieces are getting in place following award contracts for required services and work.

Construction.

It was reported that current airfield service road construction is wrapping up but that things Will be very busy next year with construction on main runways and new cargo area construction as well with anticipated Van Wyck construction. The FAA said they would do whatever they can to reduce the jams expected as a result of runway work in 2019. Jim Bliku mentioned that he would be posting a slide presentationof the runway project timeline on the Kaamco website.

Airtrain

The JFK Airtrain will have some partial and complete shutdowns between September and November. Fall partials shutdowns in September and November will be at Howard Beach and one on Jamaica for track maintenance, There will be two full shutdons for line defects inspections in October for the annual emergency drill and another maintenance inh November. The Bus bridge will support passengers during these shutdowns.